Begin As You Mean To Go On

Betty Debbie and I thought it would be a good idea to offer an introductory blog post wherein we explain the title, our obsessions and who the heck we think we are.

Who are 'we'?
We are Betty Debbie and Betty Keira, two plucky American sisters living in the Pacific Northwest--and we adore us some Betty Neels.
Sadly, we don't think that being Americans would win us any points from our late Betty muse. Americans in her novels tended to be flashy fat male millionaires, making indelicate displays of wealth and eventually taking the unsuitable (and bony) fiancee' off the hero's hands. But she would like us, we promise. For one thing, we're short and curvy--and my hair color is as near to mouse as it is possible to be. For another, we go to church on Sunday.
But as a disclaimer/confession we should mention that though we came from a pet family, neither of us own any animals to speak of nor do we particularly like (gasp!) them. (Which makes me somewhat sympathetic to the 'bad girl' who doesn't want an over-sized sheepdog mucking up the carpets.) This fact is mitigated by our large(ish) families. Betty Debbie has six kids to muck up the carpet and Betty Keira has four.
Also, as we are Mormon ladies, we think she would not approve of our religious beverage restrictions. That Betty liked her Fortnum and Mason's tea and sherry.

Why Betty Neels?
First off, we love love love Betty Neels. She wrote more than 130 books over the course of her writing career and once she hit her stride most are circumscribed little post cards filled with lame donkeys, Dutch doctors, hospital sluice rooms, English village life, splenectomies, lashings of whipped cream, nursing caps, dauntless heroines, Gucci scarves, and uncrushable jersey dresses. A heaving bosom in the world of La Neels is most likely to occur as a result of an unexpected hemorrhage during a ward round. For this, Betty is a treasured oasis.

But why a blog?
I was cataloging my books a few months ago and received an unpleasant shock. I had known for some time that Betty's entire body of work was near 130 books and every time I would pick a new one up I'd think to myself, "I've got about 30 more...give or take." Alas, gentle reader, I was only missing a couple. Pulling myself away from the dark abyss of no more new Neels, my sister and I hatched the blog.
Also, there wasn't anything on the web like what we wanted. Not to take anything away from the internet, but no one can chat Neels like we can.

The Uncrushable Jersey Dress?
Neels heroines adore fashion. Even when they are plain and dumpy and poor as church mice--no, especially when they are plain and dumpy and poor as church mice, they love to flip through the pages of Vogue and drool over the unsuitably short mini skirts. But even when they have next to nothing and have to pack themselves off to Friesland with hardly a stitch, Betty shows some mercy and lets them throw in the perennial jersey dress--uncrushable and suitable for all occasions. We are given many reasons to feel the pangs of social mortification on the part of these heroines but never, ever too much if they have an uncrushable jersey dress.

The rating system?
We think Betty Neels was probably a pretty cool chick, but since not every book is a winner we've devised a rating system (up there on the side bar) to let you know what we think of each. We like to think that La Neels was a good trencher woman and every dish we've rated makes multiple appearances in her books.
One of these years we'll have to actually try Queen of Puddings...